Smashing Pumpkins - Adore (8.1) Smashing Pumpkins - Machina II (7.7) Tool - Lateralus (1.9)
Yes, they slammed Lateralus, but you can't tell me that review wasn't amusing and informative. Plus, it's mentioned, right in the review, that the reviewer liked Undertow. The only Smashing Pumpkins release they've ever really hated was Machina, which did indeed suck. Even the boring and overproduced Melon Collie got a respectable 6.8.
Do pitchfork love some obscure bands? Yes, but they don't have any sort of bias against success. Look at their top 20 albums of the 90s:
1. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
2. Radiohead - OK Computer
3. Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted
4. Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand
5. Liz Phair - Exile In Guyville
6. Nirvana - Nevermind
7. DJ Shadow - Endtroducing...
8. Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
9. Beck - Odelay
10. Pavement - Crooked Rain
11. Built To Spill - There's Nothing Wrong With Love
12. The Pixies - Trompe Le Monde
13. Radiohead - The Bends
14. Weezer - Weezer
15. Sunny Day Real Estate - How It Feels To Be Something On
16. Beastie Boys - Check Your Head
17. Walt Mink - El Producto
18. Bjork - Homogenic
19. Jawbox - For Your Own Special Sweetheart
20. Jeff Buckley - Grace
You can make a case Pavement, Built To Spill, The Pixies and Jawbox are obscure and pretentious bands favoured by the literati, but all of them sold millions of records. Apart from Walt Mink, who are definitely obscure, every other album on this list was both a commercial and critical success. Most went platinum, and all of them produced at least one hit single (although My Bloody Valentine never really made it in North America).